There are a wide variety of packages which include (1) a container, (2) a dispensing system extending as a unitary part of, or as an attachment to, the container, and (3) a product contained within the container. One type of such a package employs one or more dispensing valves for discharging one or more streams of product (which may be a gas, liquid, cream, powder, or particulate product). See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,271,531, 6,112,951, and 6,230,940. The valve is a flexible, resilient, self-sealing, slit-type valve at one end of a bottle or container which typically has resiliently flexible sidewalls which can be squeezed to pressurize the container interior. The valve is normally closed and can withstand the weight of the product when the container is completely inverted, so that the product will not leak out unless the container is squeezed. When the container is squeezed and the interior is subjected to a sufficient increased pressure so that there is a predetermined minimum pressure differential across the valve, the valve opens. Such a valve can be designed so that it can also be opened merely by subjecting the exterior side of the valve to a sufficiently reduced pressure (e.g., as by sucking on the valve).
Such a type of valve can also be designed to stay open, at least until the pressure differential across the valve drops below a predetermined value. Such a valve can be designed to snap closed if the pressure differential across the open valve drops below a predetermined amount. The valve can also be designed to open inwardly to vent air into the container when the pressure within the container is less than the ambient external pressure, and this accommodates the return of the resilient container wall from an inwardly squeezed condition to the normal, unstressed condition.
Such a resilient valve typically includes a central head portion which is recessed inwardly from surrounding portions of the valve which project outwardly. The U.S. Pat. No. 6,230,940 illustrates one form of such a valve mounted in the dispensing opening of a closure body by means of a groove in the valve exterior which receives a mounting flange of the closure.
It would be desirable to provide an improved arrangement for mounting a dispensing valve and for sealing the valve to a component of the package.
It would also be advantageous to provide an improved dispensing system that employs a dispensing valve in an arrangement that can optionally accommodate minimization of gaps or spaces between components of the system.
It would also be beneficial to provide an improved dispensing system that employs a dispensing valve in an arrangement that can optionally be designed to eliminate the need for a snap-fit bead on one or more of the components of the system.
It would also be desirable to provide an improved dispensing system with the optional capability for allowing the user to readily view, target, and control the dispensing of the fluent material from the package.
It would also be beneficial if such an improved dispensing system could optionally readily accommodate the use of a lid or overcap—either as a separate component or as connected with a hinge structure.
It would also be beneficial if an improved dispensing system could readily accommodate manufacture of at least some of the components from a thermoplastic material.
It would also be advantageous if such an improved dispensing system could accommodate bottles, containers, or packages which have a variety of shapes and which are constructed from a variety of materials.
Further, it would be desirable if such an improved system could accommodate efficient, high-quality, high-speed, large volume manufacturing techniques with a reduced product reject rate to produce products having consistent operating characteristics unit-to-unit with high reliability.